hazard on euclid / of strawberry farms and festivals

it’s happened
the strawberry fields
are really gone
not just gone to dust
as they seemed to
the few years before

the old crop rows and the
sweet little light blue house
and the mostly-closed stand
i used to walk past on my
way to school–
bulldozed

the rough raw asphalt
is now nicely paved sidewalk
and cinderblock walls have gone
up to provide privacy for
the patch of new cookie-cutter homes
that will soon grow where once
there were strawberries

my mind goes to thoughts
of future traffic jams
and how the old stand
was always quiet
even during
strawberry season

we got our strawberries
from somewhere else
from the stater bros
down the street
or from the sale at ralphs
and then from trader joe’s

who could compete
with those monster
two dollar buckets?

not the farmers on the corner
of hazard and euclid
how many years
could i have asked
them to hang on
for the sake of
my own nostalgia?

i only remember
ever buying from
them once

oh, the hypocrisy
of my love for the
annual strawberry festival
held just a mile
up the street
how i would line up eagerly for
high fructose corn syrup- laden funnel cake
and who knows where those
strawberries came from

now we still have the festival
though no strawberries come from here

wikipedia is incorrect now;
there is no strawberry field
on hazard and euclid
any longer

we have a festival
to celebrate the past
but will there be any
Garden Grove-grown
strawberries in our future?

i can only hope
that the new homeowners
will plant a few
along with their lawns.

i drive past
the new development
and remember again
how easy it is
to remember what
is precious
once it’s gone.

 

Wikipedia